Blog Entry 3.2

When choosing an image for this blog entry I searched youtube for interesting videos that portray Macbeth’s various scenes. After looking around for a while I decided to choose a scene that depicted Duncan’s death. This scene was very hard to track down because most productions don’t depict this scene. In the play Duncan is also killed off stage, i.e., the audience dies not see his death. Many of the productions just show the chaos that ensues after finding out that Duncan is dead so I will focus on that as well as the King’s death. I chose this scene because it is the climax of the play and it affects everything that happens afterward in the play.

            This video shows a very clear portrayal of the chaos that occurs after King Duncan’s murder. It is done in chorus form which is very interesting to me and is one of the reasons I chose this video. After Lady Macbeth’s urging and questioning of his manhood Macbeth finally kills King Duncan and starts his downward spiral. In the video we can see that Macbeth seems a bit sorrowful about what has happened but Lady Macbeth does not seem troubled by it at all. As in most productions we do not see the actual murder of King Duncan which leads the audience to form their own impression of the murder in their mind.

The murder of King Duncan shapes the rest of the play as it leads to Macbeth becoming King and fulfilling the witches’ prophecy.  He also seeks to wipe out any opposition or perceived threat to his kingship. This is very evident in that he tries to kill Banquo and his son because the witches said that his offspring would rule the kingdom in time. All of his killing clearly illustrates the theme of violence that permeates this play. Although we do not see most of the violence that occurs, we can imagine it and it has a profound effect on the way that we view Macbeth. For example, when I first read Macbeth I was quite upset about Macbeth killing Macduff’s family and I was hoping for a resolution in which he would be dethroned or even killed.

In some ways Macbeth can be paralled to the story of Adam and Eve and their fall from grace. The witches meeting Macbeth and telling him that he will become King can be paralled to the devil misleading and tempting Eve. Just as Eve kept thinking about the fruit, Macbeth kept thinking about being king. The fall from grace is easily seen in both of these accounts. Eve eats the fruit and shares it with Adam and then they are both cast out of the Garden of Eden. Likewise when Macbeth kills Duncan it represents his fall from grace and his eventual destruction. It leads to his shedding more and more blood in a vicious cycle. This video was very well done and I quite enjoyed it both for what it portrayed and for the interesting manner in which it was done.